Authorities have identified the killer in yesterday’s Virginia Tech shootings:
The Virginia Tech Police Department identified him as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior in the English department.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the students and families at Virginia Tech. This is an open thread for any thoughts or comments anyone would like to express about this tragedy.
After 9/11, Columbine, et. al, it is clear we are still woefully unprepared. The “authorities” know a killer is on the loose, and he is given 2+ hours to go across campus, apparently chain doors shut (where did he get the chains? Wouldn’t someone think that action a bit odd?) and then roam through the building shooting 31 unarmed people in several different locations. It’s long past time to ditch the notion that the “authorities” will protect us. An armed and watchful citizenry is our only defense.
Why is this type of crime so prevelent in America? Sad indeed
Remember the shooting inside Woodruff High School a couple of years go? The school went on lock down (meaning no one got in or out and kids remained in the classroom).
Parents who went down to get their kids out of school were furious. They wanted their kids out RIGHT NOW, but Superintendent Ken Hinton held firm, took a lot of parents’ abuse and would not release the kids until police were positive the shooter was not among them and was there was no danger.
I give Hinton a lot of well-deserved grief, but the Virginia Tech incident makes his decisions on that day look pretty good now, huh?
Bush to be blamed in 10…9…8… ooops they beat me to it.
May they go gently into the loving arms of God.
Hmmm. 22,000 students in hundreds of buildings over thousands of acres
versus, say, 1500 students in one main and maybe one or two outbuildings. Which, Mr. Bill, can
actually be locked down? At all? Lots of discussion out here on talk radio about woulda/shoulda/coulda, too. Police and mental
health experts on Bay Area readio said “the way it usually works” in cases like this over many years is that after a shooting (the 2 bodies found in the dorm), the attacker very often flees to a far distance and, quite often, then kills himself. The cops had no *reasonable* historical record except this to go on. It’ll certainly change police procedure in these cases. Beating on the university president and campus cops for this is pretty much pointless at this time, except no one knows who to *blame* and blame and findings of fault are always so necessary in these news cases.
Another tragedy with our young people! Why do we continue to fault others for one person’s actions? The President of the University, the campus police and the city police are to blame, according to the media. A campus with 26,000 people freely coming and going in numerous buildings over much acreage. To “lock down” this campus would be like trying to lockdown a small city and notify all the citizens within 2 hours. I can’t imagine that it’s possible. These are college students that are hoping to get to class on time, not people who wake 2 hours earlier to catch the news or check email, before they head out. Why can’t people put the blame where it needs to be? There was one disturbed young man, who possessed a prescription of antidepressants that killed himeslf after killing others. If he had not taken his own life, people could have blamed him. Since he died, the media wants people to blame others. Have we become so incapable of thinking for ourselves, that we need the slanted view of the media to do it for us? I watched a national news reporter ask a grieving father if he thought the school and police could have handled the situation differently. She seemed disappointed when the father did not negatively comment. Whatever happened to just reporting the news? My heart goes out to the victims and their families and all the people affected by this tragedy.